Carnegie Mellon University

Image of Vyas Sekar at desk

July 06, 2022

Sekar earns ACM SIGCOMM Test of Time Paper Award

In 2011, as video distribution over the internet began to take off, now Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Vyas Sekar and fellow researchers explored the impact of video quality on user engagement. Their study’s results would eventually motivate streaming giants like Netflix and YouTube, among others, to develop new technical solutions such as better pro-active bitrate selection, rate switching and buffering techniques, to capture and retain audiences using their platforms.

Now, nearly eleven years later, Sekar and the team have earned ACM SIGCOMM’s Test of Time Paper Award, recognizing the lasting impact of their study, which remains a “vibrant and useful contribution” in today’s streaming landscape.

The paper, "Understanding the Impact of Video Quality on User Engagement," is a collaboration between Carnegie Mellon University and Conviva. Authors include; Florin Dobrian, Asad Awan, Dilip Joseph, Aditya Ganjam, Jibin Zhan, Vyas Sekar, Ion Stoica, and Hui Zhang.